A new electric car company based in California, with deep pockets and an impressive list of employees, may be a front for Apple’s automotive ambitions, according to speculation on Friday.
A New York Post report profiles a company called called Faraday Future, which already has more than 400 employees, despite only working out of an ex-Nissan research building for around a year.
“No one knows who’s running it,” the Post writes, “but a mysterious electric car company is building a billion-dollar manufacturing plant and poaching the best minds in the auto world.”
The company, which has no publicly-named CEO has plans to spend a $1 billion dollars on an electric car manufacturing plant in one of four states, but is refusing to reveal its backers.
On the company’s payroll the head designer of the BMW i8, a battery specialist who worked at SpaceX and a former designer at Ferrari. There are also alumni of Volvo and GM as well as tech giants like Facebook and Google.
The former director of vehicle and chassis engineering at Tesla, Nick Sampson, is also a senior vice president at the company.
The Post speculates that naming a CEO would out Apple as a partner (hence why it hasn’t happened) as would the “huge amount” of former Tesla employees now working at the company.
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The article also points out how quickly Faraday Futures obtained its funding and no-one (quite literally, no-one) has more freely available cash lying around the place as Apple.
Of course the tabloid is no stranger to wild rumours and speculation, so we’d take these reports lightly right now.
Recent reports have suggested Apple plans to have its first cars on the road within 5 years, while Faraday has promised to have a car ready in 2017.
Just yesterday, the LA Times reported on links between Faraday and a Chinese multi-billionaire Jia Yueting, who founded Leshi Internet Information & Technology, which would also appear to pour cold water on potential Apple ownership.
Earlier this week, former Apple employee Tony Fadell revealed Steve Jobs was pondering a an Apple Car as far back as 2008.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
